Travel Photo of the Day 04-17-2013

Cruiser Aurora – St. Petersburg, Russia

The Cruiser Aurora (Kreyser Avrora) is an early 1900’s protected cruiser, which is currently preserved as a museum ship in St.Petersburg. The ship is famous for firing the signal for storming the Winter Palace at 9:40 AM on October 25, 1917 where the provisional government was meeting. The crew of the Aurora was the first in the Baltic Fleet to take the side of the Bolsheviks’ in the October Revolution in Russia. When the ministers of the provisional government had been safely locked away in the Peter and Paul Fortress, the cruiser broadcast Lenin’s address to the citizens of Russia proclaiming the victory of the proletarian revolution.

The cruiser’s history began in 1903 with a baptism of fire in the Battle of Tsushima, which was an embarrassing and disastrous defeat at the hands of the Japanese Navy in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1922, the Aurora was put into service again as a training ship. Then during the Second World War, the guns were taken from the ship and used in the land defense of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). The ship herself was docked in Oranienbaum port and was repeatedly shelled and bombed. On September 30, 1941 she was damaged and sunk in the harbor. After extensive repairs in 1945 – 1947, Aurora was permanently anchored on the Neva in as a monument to the Great October Socialist Revolution and became a museum ship in 1957.